To the average Joe, a perfectly good carpet dumped behind a theatre after billions of dollars’ worth of cinema talent crossed it is fair game. So naturally, Hollywood local Paige Thalia went dumpster diving post-Oscars, brought home a new red rug and ultimately went viral for it. But as fascinating as her story is, it also reflects Hollywood’s hypocritical nature: how within hours, a symbol of glamour and honour can be reduced to literal trash.

-Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜

I trashed on Demna’s Gucci a little. I’ll admit it, I’m not perfect - and what I said about the lack of innovation still stands. But holy, the show seems to have had a a profound effect on the makeup girlies (and boys) of Instagram.

The ’26 runway titled Primavera was characterised by a heavily "sexy" aesthetic, a huge pivot for Gucci, and majorly influenced by the 2000s and Tom Ford era of the 1990s. Skintight tailoring, sparkles, stilettos to the ceiling, and dark heavy under eyes that give that Kate Moss heroin chic - that last part since putting the online makeup community in a chokehold.

I mean, it’s everywhere. Reels on Reels of “I can’t stop thinking about the Gucci Fall makeup”. It goes to show the critics can bag on you, but if the culture eats it up, you’ve won.

Now, would y’all use face ID to log into a platform if you had to do so to prove you’re human? Welp, the Reddit CEO just confirmed that’s exactly what they’re exploring. When asked on the TBPN podcast what verification methods he’s looking at, Steven Huffman responded that “the most lightweight way is with something like Face ID or Touch ID. They actually require a human presence, like a human has to touch, or do or look at something, so that actually just proves there's a person there or gets you pretty far”.

I mean, bots have flooded the platform over the last few years, so I get it. But I also just know Reddit users will have something to say about protecting their anonymity, even if it doesn't directly affect them.

Lastly, one of the largest publishers in United States just pulled a forthcoming horror novel following widespread allegations that the Author, Mia Ballard, relied heavily on artificial intelligence to write it.

Shy Girl was set to be published this spring, however on Thursday, after “conducting a thorough and lengthy review of the text”, Hachette removed the novel from Amazon and the Hachette website. The publisher said it will also discontinue the book in the UK, where it was published last fall and has sold 1,800 print copies.

Ballard has denied using AI to write Shy Girl and is pursuing legal action against her editor. She also said her mental health is at an all-time low, and her name ruined for something “I didn’t even personally do”. The book initially received rave reviews, but more and more readers had begun to come forth, slamming the book for its generic and confusing metaphors and repetitive phrasing.

This is going to become a more common issue in the writing community. The question is, do you think this is fair or not? I’d love to know your take. 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Paige Thalia was going viral viral. Why? For climbing into a dumpster behind the Dolby Theatre and taking home a huge piece of the Oscars red carpet. Security told her to go for it, they simply didn’t care.

Next thing she knew, ABC News, CBS News and multiple other outlets came knocking. They interviewed her in her living room, where she was using it as a rug - she needed one, you see.

Meanwhile, the most coverage I saw from the event was a joke made at Timmy Chalala about his comments on the opera (we won’t revisit for the love of God, I’m tired hearing about it) and a bunch of chads claiming how he was “robbed” of best actor (which he absolutely was not and if you’ve seen Sinners, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Shout out Michael B. Jordan).

Besides that, I know next to nothing about what went on or who won what. And I’m a cultural fanatic.

This is a perfect encapsulation of how spectacularly the Oscars have flopped as a cultural event. The ceremony itself is so forgettable, the carpet "theft" became the story. And the whole thing reveals how the business of entertainment is actively killing the art it's supposed to celebrate.

Just dumps it in a dumpster on Hawthorne Avenue. Thalia knew this because she'd attended a post-Oscars event ten years ago and saw them ripping up the carpet at 5am. The carpet was in good shape but didn't appear designed to last, she told The New York Times. It's single-use.

Manufactured specifically to be discarded. The Academy's own 2026 sustainability mission statement claims they aim for at least 50% of fabrication and packing materials to be reused, recycled, or composted. The literal red carpet itself apparently falls in the other 50%.

People pointed out the hypocrisy immediately. Hollywood elites preach environmental consciousness while dumping thousands of square feet of custom carpet hours after use. California bans plastic grocery bags but this waste is fine? The disconnect is crazy lmfao.

The Oscars are supposed to celebrate filmmaking. Instead, the event has become a bloated, wasteful production that nobody watches and everybody mocks.

Ratings have been declining for years. The ceremony is too long, too self-important, too disconnected from what people actually care about. The attempt to capitalise on prestige and glamour has sucked all meaning out of it. We're trying to monetise and optimise everything to the point where there's no point anymore.

The red carpet was supposed to symbolise Hollywood glamour and achievement. Instead it's literal trash that a TikToker can climb into a dumpster to retrieve. And that became more culturally relevant than anything that happened during the actual awards show.

Thalia needed a rug for her new apartment. Rugs are expensive, she walked her dog past the Dolby Theatre during setup, saw the red carpet rolls, and thought "I'll come back after the ceremony and see if they'll give me some". Security let her climb the dumpster. She hauled it home. Vacuumed it and laid it in her living room.

The story spread so fast that others showed up trying to get their own pieces. The Academy moved the remaining carpet behind secured fencing. Too late - the damage was done. The visual of high-end carpet in a dumpster hours after celebrities walked on it perfectly captured the wasteful absurdity of the whole enterprise.

The Oscars as currently run don't celebrate film - they celebrate industry excess, environmental hypocrisy, and their own declining relevance. When stealing the literal carpet generates more cultural conversation than the awards themselves, something is fundamentally broken.

Paige Thalia got a free rug and millions of views. The Academy got exposed for throwing away custom carpet while preaching sustainability. And nobody remembers what movies won.

That's the Oscars in 2026, baby.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Gymskin is a popular IRL livestreamer on Kick who caught Into The Groove by Madonna playing on a night out, said "hold on... follow that tune" to his cameraman and followed the music to do a few shoulder shrugs while lip-syncing. The song is a 1985 banger and Madonna's first ever UK number one. Now it's back in the Top 20 of the official UK charts 40 years later. We love to see it.

The clip exploded across TikTok and Instagram and everyone's already running with it. M&S Harrogate used it to promote their in-store cookies with "me when I smell M&S cookies" and Boost used it to push their Mango Magic smoothie with "when someone mentions Mango Magic." Shoulder shrugs, lip-syncing and Into The Groove playing in the background - that's literally the whole recipe.

Use this audio, film yourself lip-syncing to it, follow the sound. Once you arrive at your product or moment, land it with the shoulder shrug. Slap some on-screen text with your hook (think "me when..." or "when someone mentions..."). Done.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Richky Lim, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: I count 5 if we found the table twice
❤How wholesome: Grandpa love is different
😊Soooo satisfying: PlayDoh popping
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Crispy Chicken Caesar Sandwich

Hey Esme!

If you aren't getting sign-ups, I'm going to guess you're coming across a little too salesy in your content OR you don't have good product-market fit. Organic content's for building a relationship with your audience. If they feel like you're constantly trying to sell them something, your audience won't continue to engage.

If I were you, I'd pull back on promoting your course. Instead, make your posts around the actual course content. This will draw in people who care about the topics your course covers. Engage with your audience in the comments to keep building those relationships. In those conversations, you can figure out whether your course content addresses the actual challenges your audience wants help with. This will help you understand whether you need to adjust what you're offering!

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.